Colorado lawmakers are expected to vote today on a bill that will make owning a mortuary or crematory and also owning a body broker business at the same time illegal. You may have been following the happenings at Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors of Montrose, Colorado, this past winter that has prompted this action. According to…
Hillenbrand Industries reported 2nd quarter results last week. Hillenbrand, long known as the parent company of Batesville Caskets, has been, of late, driven by its entry into the Processed Equipment arena. The company reported a net loss for the quarter which was the result of taking a $63 million dollar charge against the carrying value…
Death care conglomerate Matthews International, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posted their 2nd quarter earnings report of Fiscal Year 2018 last week. Here’s what President and CEO Joseph C. Bartolacci said of the report, “The company’s results for the fiscal 2018 second quarter were in line with our internal expectation and we are on track to…
If you have followed the death care industry in Australia you would see that large public companies InvoCare and Propel Funeral Partners are seeking to gain market share via acquisitions. This is nothing new in the funeral industry where unit “roll-ups” have been in vogue since the 1960’s. If you are a free-market person you…
I present you this article published yesterday from investor opinion site Seeking Alpha on the potential upside of StoneMor Partners. It is a good read and, like most articles pertaining to the death care industry, there is something to take from it. Funeral Director Daily take: I will tell you, however, as a 35 year industry…
BUSINESS
More Americans take on debt to cover funerals
I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death. Here are affordability tips.” Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and…
The Green Funeral movement is alive in New York City
Amy Cunningham is a friend of mine. She was a writer/editor who has become a funeral director and she has teased me that I was a funeral director who has became a writer/editor with…
Opinion: The Jewish Faith and Cremation
I grew up in the very homogeneous community of Alexandria, Minnesota. From this Wikipedia article you can see that the city at the time of my growing up had a population of a little…
FINANCE
Park Lawn purchases 8 funeral homes in greater Oklahoma City
Late last week we received this press release that indicates that Park Lawn Corporation acquired eight stand-alone funeral homes in locations spanning the greater Oklahoma City market. It represents Park Lawn’s entrance into the…
More Americans take on debt to cover funerals
I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death. Here are affordability tips.” Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and…
The public Death Care companies are in the news
With the advent of increased private equity ownership in the Death Care business there are not a lot of public companies to draw information from that you can compare with your own funeral home. …
REGULATIONS
Missing body causing problems between family and cemetery
According to details in this article from CBC Canada Royal Air Force glider pilot veteran Gordon Patrick was buried at the Green Acres Cemetery outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, following his death in 1973. …
Subject of iconic “Homecoming” photo died on Veterans Day
This is Thanksgiving weekend — a time to reflect and give thanks for the lives we are living. Those of you who are old enough will remember back in 1973 a time when our…
Happy Thanksgiving — Enjoy, food, family, and football!!!
This year for my evening devotions I am using a book of daily notes by Billy Graham titled, “Wisdom for Each Day“. It was in the back of my mind to write something for…
CEMETERY
The Green Funeral movement is alive in New York City
Amy Cunningham is a friend of mine. She was a writer/editor who has become a funeral director and she has teased me that I was a funeral director who has became a writer/editor with…
Opinion: The Jewish Faith and Cremation
I grew up in the very homogeneous community of Alexandria, Minnesota. From this Wikipedia article you can see that the city at the time of my growing up had a population of a little…
Missing body causing problems between family and cemetery
According to details in this article from CBC Canada Royal Air Force glider pilot veteran Gordon Patrick was buried at the Green Acres Cemetery outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, following his death in 1973. …
CREMATION
Opinion: The Jewish Faith and Cremation
I grew up in the very homogeneous community of Alexandria, Minnesota. From this Wikipedia article you can see that the city at the time of my growing up had a population of a little…
Does KFC have a template for Death Care?
Alex Fasciano, an analyst for CFRA Research suggests that quick service restaurant player KFC’s (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) strategy is “. .centered on driving growth through brand relevance, marketing innovation, (and) operational excellence. .…
Cremation Air: A new service to help funeral homes
Funeral Director Daily learned last week that one of the best known names in Death Care was branching out to continue to help funeral directors. The Czachor family, founders of the leading funeral home…
PRENEED
More Americans take on debt to cover funerals
I came across this recent article from USA Today titled “Americans are going into debt over death. Here are affordability tips.” Reading that article led me to a survey and results from Debt.com and…
Preneed companies emerge as funeral home lending sources
Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm that provides a wide range of products and services, including investment banking, wealth management, consumer banking, and brokerage services, recently made this comment in an article, “Life…
Co-op Funeralcare increases “Funeral Plan” sales over 17% despite cyberattack
An April cyberattack which you can read about here probably cost the parent company of Great Britain’s largest funeral home operator, Co-op Funeralcare, about a US$ 107 million profit swing but didn’t seem to…
PRODUCTS
The Green Funeral movement is alive in New York City
Amy Cunningham is a friend of mine. She was a writer/editor who has become a funeral director and she has teased me that I was a funeral director who has became a writer/editor with…
More breakthrough technologies from OneRoom available
The streaming, recording, and re-watching of Death Care memorial events is becoming more and more a staple of what consumers are now expecting from their Death Care event professional. And much like any new…
Families falling short of funeral funds
It is not surprising that at the same time we are seeing consumer confidence erode in the U.S.A. that we are also finding some statistical data to tell us that funeral client families are…
